Academia is a sinking ship
Academia is a sinking ship, and as with the RMS Titanic, the more privileged you are, the more likely you are to survive. Professors are captaining the lifeboats; they’re standing proud in the prow, pointing the way whilst everything capsizes behind them. Lecturers are manning the oars, still with the strength to propel themselves out of trouble. The more fortunate postdoctorates — the Fellows — they are in the water, but clinging to the sides of the boats for dear life, trying to haul themselves aboard wherever possible. If a Lecturer keels over from exhaustion, they might be able to jump in. Other postdocs — those less fortunate — are clinging to scattered wreckage, waving to attract attention. They may be picked up by a kindly Professor in a passing dinghy. They may not. Everyone else is drowning or dead. Young or old. Those trapped in the plummeting carcass of the ship, those trying to jump, to get away. They’re doomed. Academia is sunk and those who piloted it there are too busy securing their own survival to worry about the masses left behind, struggling, splashing, floating lifeless, passed on to another world.
Dramatic, yes, but every year thousands of graduate students leave university with a degree and look to set sail upon the good ship Academia. There is ample room for them at this stage, and universities are eager to take them because the postgraduate students are eager to work hard in order to impress, they’re cheap labour (£22K p/a is an average graduate salary, whereas postgraduate students receive circa £14K p/a) and they’re in plentiful supply. They’re even better value for money when they’re asked to perform teaching duties or to assist learning in a laboratory session or they’re made to mark exams — as they so often are — since this spares the time of lecturers, who earn £40K+. Post-PhD, some students leave the academic life. Perhaps they realise that research isn’t for them. But many continue.
Academics, in my experience, are driven by an interest in their subject. They elect to continue their education when their undergraduate degree concludes because some curiosity has been stimulated during those three or four years which teases them into three or four more years of study. And after those extra three or four years, during which that interest usually deepens, and broadens, or the research life becomes ingrained, it is far easier to continue along the academic path than to forge a new one. PhD position because postdoctoral position #1, and then postdoctoral position #2, and at this point, the academic life is your life. Unfortunately, in many cases, this is where the problems start.
These issues will be the subject of these blog. My viewpoint will unashamedly be UK-focused, and in many cases science-focused. I’m sure academics in other countries and other disciplines have their own geographical, cultural and subject-specific issues, but I’m confident that many of the issues that UK scientists face are international and general. Issues like: job security; job opportunities; the two-body problem; gender balance; gender discrimination; the treatment of minorities, and undoubtedly many more. Hopefully I will be able to tackle some of these life-changing issues here on this blog. Maybe with your help. Please leave a comment if you have thoughts on anything I’ve written. Or if you have a burning desire to write a post yourself, get in touch… we can work out how to collaborate. I’m looking forward to a constructive dialogue on these complex topics.
